Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 145402 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 727(@200wpm)___ 582(@250wpm)___ 485(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145402 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 727(@200wpm)___ 582(@250wpm)___ 485(@300wpm)
He slammed the door behind him on his way out but stood frozen in the hallway. He knew better than to go back to the upperclassmen in a mood like this. This wasn't the time or place for it, not with the team already so fragile, but Neil's temper had never had good timing. He wasn't even sure who he was angrier at: Aaron, for being so impossibly blind, or himself, for not putting the pieces together sooner. It didn't help that he was still mad at Nicky and Kevin for being so useless.
He couldn't calm down, so he did the only thing he could: he took the stairs to the ground floor and went for a run. He wasn't aiming for the court but he inevitably wound up there. He dropped his keys by the home bench when he passed and ran the stadium steps. Halfway through he finally outran his thoughts. He stopped feeling, stopped being "Neil", stopped being anything but a body in motion. He walked it off afterward in the inner ring. Every shuddering breath was too hot in his strained lungs, but Neil finally felt normal again.
He collected his keys on his way out and locked up behind himself. It was a slow walk back to Fox Tower and he took the stairs to the third floor. Matt was on the couch in their room, Dan to one side and Renee to the other. Allison had claimed one of the desks. They all looked to the door when he walked in and from the looks on their faces Neil got the feeling he'd interrupted an important conversation. He held up a hand on his way to the bathroom, a silent apology for bad timing and a promise he was going to be out of earshot in the shower momentarily.
"Lunch is in the fridge," Matt said. "Coach dropped it off while you were gone."
Neil had forgotten all about it. "Thank you."
He opened his closet to dig out clothes but hesitated at the sight of his safe. He crouched to run his fingers over the lock, thoughts spinning a million miles an hour. He wondered how much the insurance company would cover toward repairs for his teammates' cars. Even if it couldn't cover everything, Allison and Matt had enough money to pick up the rest. The cousins didn't have that kind of cash, and their car was nearly as expensive as Allison's was. Nicky had already predicted they'd get bad news back on it.
The tap of a shoe on thin carpet distracted him. He leaned back out of the closet to look. Allison was standing in the doorway, expression guarded and arms folded across her chest.
Neil still didn't know what to say to her, but he had to try. "I'm sorry. He didn't deserve it."
Allison was silent for an eternity, then said, "You already said it. If we got what we deserved, we wouldn't be Foxes." His words sounded callous when applied to Seth's death. Neil winced, but Allison shrugged and looked away. "Maybe it's better like this. If he'd done it to himself, I'd live knowing I'd never gotten through to him. At least this way there's someone else to take the blame."
"Andrew told you about Riko?"
"I've known since it happened," Allison said. "The monster stopped by Abby's house before the funeral to ask me about Seth's medicine. He told me his theory to make sure I got back on the court."
Neil thought about Allison returning to the game too soon after Seth's death and the way Andrew stopped by her side on his way to goal. He'd thought it suspicious at the time that Andrew would offer any sort of support. Maybe Andrew had been reminding her to get angry.
Allison stopped speaking to Neil for weeks after Seth's overdose. Neil thought her withdrawal was because of her grief. He'd welcomed the cold shoulder, unsure how to approach her with his guilty conscience. If she'd always known Andrew's theory, though, she'd always known Neil was partly to blame. Maybe that was why Andrew got involved: he'd already taken Neil under his protection by then, so he needed to make sure Allison wasn't going to be a problem for them.
Somewhere along the way she'd forgiven him and Neil hadn't even realized it.
"I should have said something sooner. I just didn't—" Neil gestured, helpless and lost and awful. "I don't know how to talk to people about the important things."
"We noticed." Allison shrugged like it was no big deal when they both knew it was. "You're a real piece of work. One of these days you're going to tell me why."
She went back to the other room, leaving Neil alone with his thoughts and secrets.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Neil was on his way out of the bedroom after his shower when his phone buzzed. He patted his pockets, found them empty, and dug his cell phone out from under his pillow. Two messages were waiting for him, one from Nicky timestamped almost an hour ago and the more recent one from Katelyn. Katelyn's was just a desperate "What happened???" that Neil didn't waste his time answering.
Nicky's was a heads-up that Andrew was back. It seemed redundant, since if Wymack had brought them food of course he'd have dropped Andrew off as well. Knowing Nicky, it was a veiled plea to get involved and make sure everything was okay. Neil stuffed his phone in his back pocket and left his room without a word to anyone. Nicky answered his knock within seconds and didn't have to ask why Neil was there.
"He took a bottle and left again," Nicky said. "Don't know where he went."
There wasn't far Andrew could go with an open bottle of liquor in hand and no car. "With Coach?"
"Don't think so," Nicky said. "Aaron left, too, right after you did."
Neil didn't care what Aaron did. He nodded and left, and Nicky didn't call after him. Neil took the stairs up to the roof and fought the knob the way he'd seen Andrew jar it loose. It only needed a couple tries before he got it open, and he stepped out onto the windy rooftop.